“Jimi Hendrix songs which only you can listen to!”: Previously unheard demos up for auction

An amazing haul of previously unreleased Jimi Hendrix recordings will be put up for auction on 15 November. And the jewel in the crown is a demo tape from 1968 featuring alternative versions of classic tracks Up From the Skies, Ain’t No Telling, Little Miss Lover and Stone Free.

This item alone is expected to reach a sale price of £200,000. And Mark Hochman, music consultant for the auctioneer, Propstore, explains what that kind of money will buy: “The kudos of having your own Jimi Hendrix songs which only you can listen to.”

The auction will be live-streamed from London, and will include various items of Hendrix memorabilia including a gold suit worn by the guitarist and the first professional contract for The Jimi Hendrix Experience. But the high value items are the 50 tapes of previously unreleased recordings, some of which are in boxes bearing song titles in Jimi’s handwriting.

The collection is being sold by Patricia “Trixie” Sullivan, who worked as the personal assistant to Hendrix’s manager Mike Jeffery between 1966 and 1973.

Mark Hochman says of the tracks on the 1968 demo tape: “These versions have never been heard before, circulated or broadcast and are very different in sound and length to the more common examples.

“They’re a lot tighter and smoother. You can hear more guitar, which is obviously what Hendrix was famous for. The experts who have visited and heard the recordings all agree that these are far superior to all the other versions of these tracks.”

For now, Jimi’s fans can only imagine what these versions sound like. Whether any of these recordings will ever be made available to the wider world is a matter for the winning bidder to negotiate with the Hendrix estate.